The present invention relates generally to amorphous cellulose and disordered cellulose compositions and to methods of making the same. The invention more particularly concerns a method of making altered cellulose by the action of a magnetic field upon cellulose-producing organisms.
Cellulose, a natural polysaccharide found throughout the plant world, is used for many purposes. Cellulosic products are usually obtained in various forms from plants such as trees, after different types of processing. The specific types of processing depend upon the uses to which the final cellulosic product is to be put.
Cellulose may also be obtained from cellulose-producing microorganisms. Such microbial cellulose, similar to plant derived cellulose in chemical structure, may be utilized for many analogous purposes.
The structure of microbial cellulose membranes has been studied by Purz et al (Faserforshung und Textiltechnik V. 28(4) pp. 155-163, 1977 and V. 27(11) pp. 561-570, 1976) and determined to be an interwoven and disordered mesh of fibrillar strands with diameters of 50 mm to 100 mm.
Microbial cellulose has been produced in altered form by chemical alterations on the addition of fluorescent brightening agents or direct cellulose dyes.
Magnetic fields have been implicated as having effects on many living systems. The growth of winter wheat seeds, for example, has been found to be stimulated in a magnetic field of 100 gauss, this stimulation not being further increased by magnetic fields up to 1500 gauss (Cope, Physiol.: Chem. & Physics (1981) V. 13, pp. 567-568). Geacintov et al (Biochem. et Biophys. Acta (1972) V. 267, pp. 65-79 has shown a magnetic orientation effect on chloroplasts and whole Chlorella cells. McKenzie and Pittman (Can. J. Plant Sci. (1980) V. 60, pp. 87-90) demonstrated that magnetotropic root growth is a plant characteristic inheritable through plant cytoplasm. A growth response of Lepidium seedlings exposed to magnetic field gradient was shown by Audus (Nature V. 185: pp. 132-134, 1960) and oriented growth of pollen tubes in a strong magnetic field has been demonstrated (Sperber and Dransfeld, Naturwissenschaften V. 68; pp. 40-41, 1981).
Adey (Physiological Review (1981) V. 61, pp. 435-514) has presented a general review of tissue interactions with nonionizing electromagnetic fields. In this review Adey (ibid, p. 463) cites evidence that agarose, a bacterial polysaccharide, is affected in orientation by magnetic fields during an agarose gelation process. Agarose gelled in a 1.0 T magnetic field (apparently about 16,667 gauss) was about 7% more permeable to electrophoretically migrating bacterial DNA than was agarose gel formed at about 0.5 gauss.
Several polymers have been shown to adopt a particular orientation with respect to externally applied magnetic fields. Precipitation of collagen in a field of approximately 20 kilogauss resulted in highly ordered arrays of fibrils with their axes at right angles to the field (Murthy, Biopolymers V. 23; pp. 1261-1267, 1984). Increasing the field beyond 20 kilogauss increased the order of the fibrils. Skeletal muscle actin has also been shown to adopt a preferred orientation in strong magnetic fields (Torbet and Dickens, FEBS Letts V. 173 p. 403, 1984).
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,020,590, Davis describes an apparatus and method for exposing seeds to a magnetic field and thereby altering seed germination and plant growth therefrom. In U.S. Pat. No. 4,065,386 Rigby describes a method of algae growth control wherein water is passed through a magnetic field. Amburn in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,910,233 and 3,991,714 describes methods and an apparatus for magnetically increasing the incidence of fertilization by fowl sperm and magnetically inducing greater hatching rates of fertilized eggs.